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Surf & Home Turf
Hello from Port Macquarie on the East Coast, about halfway between Sydney and Brisbane.
After the excitement of Caroline’s birthday, we stayed another night at the campsite just to relax and then got back on the road, taking Mario into Sydney over the bridge and stopping for some photo ops. We then shot off to Bondi Beach, which was beautiful, but very busy and commercialised, so we didn’t stay long - just had a paddle (our first in the South Pacific) and bought a new beach bag. We drove up to Manly but had a bit of a nightmare finding a parking spot which wasn’t a ridiculous hourly rate, so didn’t stay long there either! Our original plan of perhaps spending at day at each resort turned into a couple of hours at each and then back on the road.
We wound up at the Berowa Valley Regional Park, camping next to the river. It was so nice and quiet (and free) after the hustle and bustle of Sydney, we spent a couple of days there just walking the bush tracks along the river. The wildlife was amazing, just hanging out on the river banks were loads of water dragons, lizards and 6 foot long monitors – as we walked by some would jump in the water or scurry up the nearest tree, but some just stared at us, quite menacingly! The best were the birds though. All sorts of parrots, parakeets, white and black cockatoos, which we’re getting used to – but we weren’t expecting to see - or hear - the lyre birds. Such incredible sounds from them as they scurried around between the trees, seemingly oblivious to us. Their song was unreal, if you haven’t heard one, check out the YouTube footage below to hear how they copy sounds around them. And the pair that were near the car park did sometimes sound like the “blip blip” of a car alarm!
Still no wombats though! We’ve even bought mossie nets that go over our hats so we can go on night walks without being bitten to death – but we are yet to see a live wombat in the wild. We’re getting to the northern limit of the common wombat’s habitat too, but there’s another type further north, so hopefully we’ll have better luck with them. We did see a huge bat/flying fox in Sydney, just hanging in the tree, looking at us, waiting for us to get our camera out before flying off!
We’ve seen loads of different types of koalas. We’ve seen the 3 legged, one eyed koala, the no-eyed koala, the humpback koala, the no clawed koala that can’t climb trees and loads of koalas with chlamydia that gives them conjunctivitis and then eventually no bladder control (technically called “wet bottom”). Yes, we visited a koala hospital for a walk-and-talk with one of the volunteers, seeing their patients that had been injured on the roads, in bushfires, or orphaned or just diseased. It was an emotional and heart-rending visit, but best of all it was free. (Relax, we made a donation – even though they couldn’t tell us where all the freaking wombats are at!)
We took a bit of a pootle around Lake Macquarie, Australia’s largest shoreline lake – it’ either 2, 3 or 4 times bigger than Sydney Harbour, they can’t seem to decide. This was very nice indeed. A huge, calm beautiful lake with charming little towns dotted along the pebbly shore of crystal clear waters. The perfect antidote if you’ve had too much of crashing waves, sand and ocean wind. It was like the world’s biggest boating lake / swimming pool / fish pond all in one. Here we visited another Swansea, but not much to report other than this is where the lake joins the sea. Toronto was very nice, but unfortunately this one didn’t contain either our good friend Jeannie or Caroline’s Aunty Jean – we’ll just have to wait till next year!!
So last weekend we were in the city of Newcastle, which is very aptly named as not only is it the world’s biggest coal exporting port, but it was also raining. To be fair it wasn’t raining all the time, when we got there it was 36 degrees and really sunny. It only started raining when we put some washing out. And when we went to the beach. Oh yeah, and when we wanted to have dinner sat outside. And just for the three hours we choose to walk around the city the next morning.
None of this really mattered though as the only reason we were in Newcastle was to go to NitroCircus, and for those 2 hours it didn’t rain. If you don’t know what NitroCircus is, then you’re probably not a pre-pubescent male, which we’ll guess is most of you. So, it’s basically a motorcycle / BMX / skateboard stunt show which tours the world every couple of years and stars the best riders doing crazy stuff over huge jumps. Then they throw in quad bikes, snow mobiles and some JackAss style stuff like armchairs, bathtubs, kiddies toys, you get the idea. Google it, you’ll love it! Anyhow, we had a blast. We were trackside and just seeing these loons soaring through the air above us was “awesome” and “totally rad, dude”. We have no idea if such people still speak like that, but we’d like to think so.
Talking of being “awesome”, we bought ourselves some boogie boards (you know, the short surf boards you just lie or kneel on). We decided we had to give some sort of surf thing a go and when we saw some boards for $20 each in an end-of-summer sale, we had nothing to lose. Except our dignity and possibly our swimsuits, but hopefully a few pounds at the same time as it’s a proper workout. It’s early days, but we’re getting the hang of it and having a great laugh – neither of us are that happy to just lie on the beach, so the boards are a great way to enjoy the beach culture and then when we get tired, we feel like we deserve a little lie down in the sand. And the beach really is part of the culture, it’s not a stereotype or just a fashion thing – it appears that everyone, all ages and sizes, tries to get on or in the water as often as possible. Today we saw people on their lunch-breaks stopping for a quick swim/surf then shower, before heading back to it. Just about every vehicle you see has some sort of watersport/fishing equipment attached to it. Even some motorbikes and pushbikes have surfboard carriers on the side!
Between Newcastle and here, we headed a little bit inland towards the “New England” area, specifically to visit Gloucester (Bry’s hometown in the UK). The countryside here was the greenest we’ve seen since being in Australia. Everywhere was just so green and lush, with all the hills, valleys, rivers and cows it really was like being back at home. We drove past a “Welcome to Gloucestershire” sign, just like we were on the M5 at home. We then drove through Stroud and in to Gloucester, all through this beautiful, green scenery. We both got quite emotional and homesick – we really could have been making the journey back to our friends and family. Sad to say, we got so choked that we just drove on and found somewhere to sleep about 10 miles away.
The next day, feeling more composed and with it, we returned to Gloucester and had a good walk about, talking to some locals who noticed Bry’s Gloucester Rugby top. We learnt the city and surrounding towns were named exactly because they looked like the originals and the area was meant to be used for sheep farming, but they changed that to cows because of the local flooding – just like home! We chatted to one old dear, must have been in here sixties at least, who was most impressed with our journey, making us feel like the big adventurers. She then goes on to explain that she’s off to Namibia next month, she’s been to all the other African countries bar two, most of the Middle East and all of South America. She explained “I want to see all the dodgy places while I’m still young, plenty of time for the more civilised countries when I’m older!” She was brilliant, could have talked for hours, but she had to go shopping – probably to catch her own crocodile for dinner!
So we’re now in Port Macquarie, another old convict settlement, which is surrounded by lovely beaches. We hope to stay here a few days and do some rough planning head. We’ve been back on the road proper for a few weeks now, so have a good idea of what distances and costs we should be looking at in the future. We’ll look at the long term weather forecasts and try to decide a definite route and timescale. Currently, for the first time ever, we have nothing booked, planned, scheduled or whatever. It’s a weird feeling. It’s good to be so free, but you lose any sense of purpose or accomplishment. We think we’re happier with some sort of plan, even if it’s just “We’ll be at Suchandsuch by next weekend”.
So until next time, when we’ll apparently be in Suchandsuch, Hoo Roo!